Malta has been making steady progress in its digital economy and now ranks 12th out of the 28 EU member states, moving up one place since 2015.

The EU’s mid-term review of the 2015 Digital Single Market strategy highlighted a number of projects being undertaken by the Malta Communications Authority and other stakeholders to improve the ranking.

Malta ranks 9th in terms of connectivity, same as last year. As for the supply side of fixed broadband, Malta is the most advanced member state in the EU with all households covered by at least 30 Mbps broadband (EU average: 76 %). Fixed broadband take-up (80%) stands also above the EU average (74%).

The percentage of internet users in Malta slightly increased (76%) compared to one year ago (74%), but this was not enough to close the gap with the EU average (79%).

As regards digital skills, Malta shows a mixed picture. On the one hand, individuals with basic digital skills (49%) stand below EU average (56%). On the other hand, the percentage of ICT specialists in the labour force is now slightly higher (3.6%) than the EU average (3.5%).

When it comes to transactional services such as e-banking and shopping online, Malta stands rather in the middle of the ranking. 60% of internet users bank or shop online. The latter declined by six percentage points, and is now below average (66%).

A quarter of internet users in Malta do not to buy online because of security concerns (EU: 19%) and 8% experienced abuse of personal information and/or other privacy violations (EU: 3%).

There has been progress in e-commerce. 20% of SMEs sell online, up from 16% a year ago, which is the 7th highest in Europe, and the e-commerce turnover of SMEs also grew. In addition, Malta scores particularly well on cross-border sales, ranking the fourth in Europe (11.7%, EU: 7.5 %).

Malta is a European leader on the supply of e-government services for citizens. It ranks first on the re-use of information across administrations to make life easier for citizens through pre-filled forms) as well as on the sophistication of services (online service completion), where it has the maximum score. However, use by citizens does not match the ambition of the supply side. Despite the high quality in the online provision of public services, only 24% of internet users sent filled forms to public authorities in 2016, which is four percentage points lower than a year ago and well below the EU average of 34%.